Monthly Archives: June 2017

Sorry for the lack of blogging recently folks. I’ve been so busy with my travels and catching up on work stuff I’ve had little time for writing. Still, here’s one I’ve been hoping to write for some time – a look at the anti Hs2 campaign after the election.

To be honest, antis had an even worse election campaign than I thought they would. Mind you – so did the Conservatives! Apart from the non-story that Joe Rukin put around, claiming the Tories were going add cancelling Hs2 to their manifesto nothing was really heard about the anti Hs2 campaign. Apparently, Hs2aa raised their arse off their sofa long enough to find a few bob down the back of it and pay for an ad in The Spectator, and – well, that was it. Stop Hs2 did little better. It’s evident that Joe Rukin and Penny Gaines are just going through the motions now. The Stop Hs2 website and Facebook page had nothing of relevance added and their tweets were sporadic. There was no attempt to actually lead a campaign. Instead it drifted, rudderless. But then, what is there to lead anymore? If you look at their Facebook page it has a measly 7,488 followers but the number of people who ‘like’ a post have never got above 200 throughout the whole election campaign. The number who share or comment is even poorer than that. Here’s a screen- grab of one of the more popular. This was posted on the 21st June. The screen-grab was taken today (27th).

Twitter was no better. Stophs2 have a lousy 5,369 followers. So, how many retweeted this same comment?

A miserable 21! In an election campaign!

This is a great illustration of what I’ve always said. Social media is a double-edged sword. It exposes your weaknesses as well as strengths.

In past elections they’ve also run a ‘no votes for you with Hs2’ campaign, but it’s always been an abject failure – as the results on election night show. This year was no different.

The phase 1 campaign is a dead man walking. I’ve blogged about it plenty of times in the past so I’m not going over old ground, but what was interesting this time was to see how quickly the Phase 2 campaign groups have collapsed.

Remember that the Leeds branch of Hs2 has (supposedly) the most ‘active’ anti groups on it. A number of new ones were formed due to route changes in Leicestershire, Notts and Yorkshire. So, lets have a look at some case studies.

MAPA is a group that was formed in February this year. Here’s their website. As you can see if you can be bothered to browse it. There’s not a lot going on. The residents of the villages they claim to represent total some 8,700 souls. Their minutes claim 110 turned up to their first meeting, which is 1.26% of all residents. Not exactly a groundswell then! Things haven’t got any better. Despite their commitment to publish regular minutes of meetings, nothing has appeared since January. Instead, this was sent out by the group in mid May…

The only sign of life is the barrage of pointless tweets from one of the group, Stephen Leary (who I’ve blogged about before here). I can’t help wondering how long this groups can survive. It’s already moribund and if the local area consultation shows that more residents support the route change than oppose it, they’re toast.

Meanwhile, in Nottinghamshire, we have the Erewash ‘Action’ Group. Here’s their website and Facebook pages. Here’s their ridiculously ambitious aims (copied from their website).

Stop Hs2 within 2 years and hold elected representatives to account? My! So, how’s that going then? Badly.

The local MP is Conservative Maggie Throup, who won the seat from Labour in 2015 with a 3,584 majority. Maggie is a supporter of Hs2 and she’s clearly no pushover as the Erewash antis have found out! Their agressive style and regular lack of honesty hasn’t gone down well with the MP who’s confronted them a number of times. Most recently here in response to this bit of bombast from the Erewash antis. Now, take note of this bit;

“In recent weeks, the STOP HS2 Erewash Campaign has gained huge momentum with an influx of new volunteers and supporters, as well as significant press coverage and public interest. The campaign is operated and staffed by concerned local residents, business owners and activists, who all feel strongly that HS2 should be stopped in its entirety.”

So, how did holding Maggie to ‘account’ go?

At the 2017 election she increased her majority from 3,584 to 4,534 on a swing of 0.84% from Labour! Oh dear…

Erewash antis went very quiet after their meeting with Maggie as it was clear it hadn’t gone their way (see their Facebook page for details). Well, quiet until today, when this was slipped out on Facebook:

So much for stopping Hs2 in 2 years by a campaign that had “gained huge momentum with an influx of new volunteers and supporters”. They’re very coy about the merger, but it’s actually with the nearby group from Trowell (who aren’t so coy!)

Trowell are another tiny group with a similar problem. They’ve no political clout either! The idea this creates a ‘unified nation campaign’ is the stuff of fantasy! Their MP is the feisty anti Brexit MP Anna Soubry (another Hs2 supporter). How a merged campaign across the constituency boundaries is supposed to Stop Hs2 is anyone’s guess, but then that’s the problem with these campaigns. They’re so out of their depth there’s only going to be one result. If they’d any sense they’d be working with their MPs to gain the greatest benefits for their areas from Hs2 instead of trying to throw around weight they don’t have, pretending they can Stop hs2.

So, that’s a snapshot of the state of play with StopHs2 after the election. It’s obviously on its last legs. Interestingly, the announcement in the Queens speech that the phase 2b Hybrid Bill will be put before Parliament hasn’t raised as much as a glimmer from any Staffs antis – although that’s hardly surprising. There’s not been a credible Hs2 ‘action’ groups in Staffs for years as they tended to be run by either ‘eccentrics’ or as a front for UKIP. Which brings me neatly onto the other fall-out from the election campaign.

Remember when UKIP said they’d Stop Hs2?

Instead, voters stopped UKIP! Now there’s only one party left in Parliament that still opposes Hs2. The Greens – and they’ve still only got 1 MP….

I’ve added a lot more old Sri Lanka pix to my Zenfolio website. This will be the last one for a while as I’m not going to have any opportunity for time-consuming slide scanning over the next few months.

Later today I head to Birmingham for tomorrow’s National Rail Conference, after which I hot-foot it to Crewe to join the teams from the rail industry competing in the 3-peaks charity event for the Railway Children. I was approached to help so offered my services as the official photographer for the event. We’re travelling by special train between the three peaks in what promises to be an eventful (if mostly sleep free) event. The train will be everyone’s home for the length of the event. I’ll try and add a few comments and maybe some pictures as we go. After travelling back from Fort William on Saturday I end up at Preston before heading home to a comfortable bed!

After that it’s time to take up my role as a judge for the ACoRP awards. This means I’ll be travelling the length & breadth of the UK over the next couple of months. So, who knows where you might bump into me…

I have to say, I’ve never known a general election like this. So many people are expressing their confusion and angst over who to vote for. Comment after comment on Facebook is from friends who are clearly torn over which box to put their cross in. “A pox on both your houses” seems to be a common sentiment as the choice between Labour and Tories is seen by many as being between the devil and the deep blue sea.

I went to the dentists this morning. Whilst I was having my teeth checked the hygenist and her assistant started discussing the election. The young assistant admitted she probably wouldn’t vote as she didn’t know who to vote for and didn’t really understand the issues. The hygenist mentioned that she had a Labour MP whom she liked, but may back the Tories as (although she didn’t like Brexit) she wanted it to be sorted out.

I was asked for my opinion, so I pointed out the emptiness in May’s rhetoric and her suicidal willingness to countenance a hard Brexit. I wasn’t much kinder about Labour, but I did mention they may make less of a mess of Brexit. The conversation wasn’t untypical of ones I’ve had elsewhere.

Frankly, it’s terrifying that on such a crucial issue as Brexit, the main parties have colluded in keeping voters in the dark about the reality of what we’re facing. It’s clear to me that many more enlightened and educated voters are seeing this, hence their quandry over who to vote for. Equally terrifying is the way the right-wing press are pushing for the Tories and a hard Brexit. It really does feel like the country is rushing headlong over a cliff, egged on by the billionaires and others who will benefit.

Could the election yet throw up a surprise? I believe it might, although I’m pessimistic. I’ve never known so many people willing to ditch old allegiences (including myself). I suspect we’re going to see voter mobility and tactical voting on an unprecedented scale, but I’ve no idea where it will take us.

I’ve resisted the temptation to blog about the general election on a regular basis, mainly because it’s such a depressing event. The ‘choice’ is between two parties, neither of whom I’d trust to run the UK. Despite my past loyalties I can’t work up any enthusiasm for a Labour party led by Corbyn and his team and I really don’t see why he’s held in such adulation by his followers. As for toxic Teresa May and her mob…

The old political adage that oppositions don’t win elections, governments lose them could have been written especially for this particular election. Despite being 21 points ahead in the polls when she called it, May’s had an awful election campaign as it’s exposed her weaknesses. As Alistair Campbell (Tony Blair’s former Press Secretary) has said, why would you try and build a cult of personality around someone who doesn’t possess one? She’s trotted out a string of meaningless soundbites and platitudes throughout the campaign. ‘Strong and stable’ my arse! Looking at her Cabinet and their performances is equally depressing. Boris Johnson, the blonde buffoon, representing the UK on the world stage? Have we really sunk that low?

What I find incomprehensible is the way many voters in the country are indulging in an almost masochistic delight in ruining the country, politically, economically and internationally. To hear people call for as ‘hard’ a Brexit as possible is complete madness. What on earth are they thinking? It’s the same now with May’s calls to scrap human rights laws. People are actively supporting a political party that will make their lives harder. For what? What on earth do they think they’ll gain from this?

Let’s be under no illusions, Brexit is the elephant in the room here and neither Labour nor the Tories are being honest about it with voters. It’s all very well Labour saying all their policies are costed. So what’s the cost of Brexit (especially a hard Brexit) then? No-one will say. No-one is admitting what the damage Brexit will do to the UKs economy and how that will impact on anyone’s spending plans.

I’ve said before that I fear for my country. Those fears remain. I see this country slipping away into authoritarianism, prejudice and ignorance – with the full (or tacit) support of many voters. The parallels with 1930s Germany are too real to ignore, yet many people are doing exactly that.

Whichever political party wins on Friday, the clear loser is going to be the United Kingdom, and its people.

Yesterday I visited Glossop station in Derbyshire for a rather unusual event organised by the station friends group. A ceremony was held to commemorate the 77th anniversary of the events of 2nd June 1940, when 600 wartime evacuees from the seaside town of Lowestoft arrived in this small town by train. Several of the original evacuees, plus family and friends attended, whilst some local schoolchildren (suitably attired as evacuees) recreated their arrival. As a rather poignant link, one of the schoolchildren was carrying the very same suitcase that was carried by one of the evacuees all those years ago. The groups held a ceremony to unveil a plaque and display which includes evacuee’s recollections and a poem. Here’s a selection of pictures from the event.

Neil Williams from the friends of Glossop station talks about the event whilst some of the Lowestoft evacuees listen.

Children from a local school who played the part of evacuees with the original evacuees. The young girl on the left is carrying one of the suitcases used 77 years ago that day.

Some of the evacuees unveil a plaque on the station to commemorate the events of the 2nd June 1940, 77 years to the day.

1st June already? Shit, where did May go? – and I don’t mean the Prime Minister as that’s another blog entirely!

Apologies for my complete absence last month. It’s not that I’ve had nothing to say or comment on it’s just that last month turned into a busy time that left me little opportunity to really compose my thoughts. I was full of good intentions to write some stuff whilst I’ve been on my travels but other stuff got in the way. Those of you who visit my photography website will be aware that I’ve been busy scanning and uploading hundreds of old slides. I’ve been concentrating on the ones I took just before I went digital, the problem there is that most of them were never catalogued properly, so they sat in photo albums unlabelled. It’s been the devil’s own job to try and caption and collate them as I had to dredge through old notebook but I’m getting there – finally! The rest are already entered on a database so they’ll be easier to do.

Besides the slides I’ve been busy with various press events and other jobs, including a trip on the first Eurostar e320 to Brussels as well as social events and my fiance’s birthday. We had a fantastic long-weekend in Cumbria which included walking up Scafell on the hottest day of the year so far. Here’s a sample of the views from the top.

Now the country finds itself a week away from what’s probably the strangest election in my lifetime. I’ll be honest here – I have absolutely no idea what the result will be. Despite having said she wouldn’t, Teresa May finally called it – only to see it blow up in her face. She’s seen a 21 point lead shrink into single figures, despite her opponent being the most unpopular Labour leader for decades. The Tories appear to have made a crucial error in basing their campaign as being all about Teresa’s personality and appeal. Their problem is – she has neither! The election’s been one of the most lacklustre and negative I can remember. If I hear her parrot vacuous phrases like ‘strong and stable’ once more…

The irony is, she called the election but then she ran away! She’s refused to sully her hands in a debate with anyone else and positively avoided any meaningful contact with voters. When interviewed she trots out trite, meaningless phrases that the media really shouldn’t be letting her get away with. If Labour had a decent leader with broad appeal they’d walk this election. Sadly, they haven’t although I’ve got to admit that Jeremy Corbyn has come across better in this campaign. Like many, I’ll be staying up to watch the results come in when the polls close. My prediction is that the Tories will win but what their majority will be is anyone’s guess. This election’s like no other and the effect tactical voting plus the collapse of UKIP will have is unpredictable.

What I can’t understand is the way Brexit is the elephant in the room that no-one mentions. Brexit makes a mockery of fine phrases about having ‘costed’ policies when none of the parties are being honest about what Brexit (especially the hard Brexit the Tories look to favour) will cost the UK economy. It’s madness, but that’s the way the UK seems to work nowadays. It’s like an economic version of the ‘phoney war’.